


Mad For You

by MoonlightShines (Thatkillervibe)



Category: Stargirl (TV 2020)
Genre: F/M, Pining, Rick and Beth at the Pit Stop, just like always
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-07
Updated: 2020-11-07
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:41:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27440605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thatkillervibe/pseuds/MoonlightShines
Summary: Beth makes a big mistake and expects Rick to blow up at her.She's kinda mad that he doesn't.
Relationships: Beth Chapel/Rick Tyler
Comments: 8
Kudos: 22





	Mad For You

“I can’t be mad at you.” 

Beth scoffs. “What do you _mean_ you can’t be mad at me?” 

She could list the different people that have pissed Rick off just in the last _day._

Yolanda, Courtney, Pat. Even Mike, over the way he sprays Pop-Tart bits when he talks. 

Of course, it was never that mean spirited poisonous anger Rick had felt consumed by when they first met. That, he promised, had subsided some when the hole in his life was filled by friendship and acceptance. The JSA became his family, there was no reason any more to be so spiteful to everyone, on the defence and ready to knock out anyone that stumbled onto his path. Whether with harsh words or an intimidating stare. Sometimes his own fists. 

But the anger Rick has now is far more passive. Beth knows he saves the rolling fury that accumulates for the villains and Dragon King goons that still twitch and amble around the dark tunnels below the city. Either way, reformed hero or not, new anger-management or not, Rick’s anger still exists. He gets pissed off and irritated quickly, isn’t afraid to tell someone when to stop being annoying or pragmatic. So that’s why Beth is having a hard time seriously believing him, saying he can’t get mad at her. 

Not to be Cher Horowitz (Though she'd pick Dionne Davenport over Cher any day, just in case anyone was wondering) but. As If. 

“What?” he shrugs, sitting in one of the vacant classic cars. Perhaps it was summer but Pat still gave them plenty of research work to do. And Rick works at the Pit Stop for money. Beth enjoys visiting him after work to go out for ice cream or regular walks before JSA meetings. “I already told you, there’s no need to stress over it. It’s whatever. I’m not mad.”

She had accidentally spilled lemonade all over his new chemistry notebook. The one with his reconfigurations with the time mechanism of the hourglass. After he had told her to be careful with the overfilled cup, too. 

Beth had leaned over Pat’s desk where Rick was working, and her elbow jostled the glass, making it wobble and in her effort to save it, the glass knocked over right over his pages of blue ink. 

She had felt so bad about it, springing from her chair to run to the back employee room for paper towels as she apologized profusely. Her only solace was that it wasn’t his father’s journal. Just a replica Pat got made for Rick last Christmas. She expected Rick to rip one into her and cringe through it, without interruption. She deserved it. 

But he didn’t do that. Helped her clean, he took the roll and flipped out the pages, hanging it up to dry so they won’t dry all stuck together—And insisting it wasn’t a big deal, which was a lie if Beth ever heard one. 

“I ruined all of your work! That’s your only notebook.” 

His face makes a grimace, pained at the reminder. “Yeah…But it was an accident.” 

She puts a hand on her hip. “No, I don’t buy that. It’s not that you can’t get mad at me. You don’t want to. You don’t think I can handle that, and frankly, it’s a bit insulting.” 

Rick lets out a startled laugh. “Excuse me?” 

Beth crosses her arms, raising her head to stare him down. “You heard me. You think I can’t take your anger. I’m too fragile or something.” 

“You’re unbelievable.”

“For being right?” Beth presses. 

In all honesty, she isn’t sure why she’s trying so hard to start a fight.

It’s true, she’s not too fragile to handle his explosive bouts of emotion, but that doesn’t mean that she _wants_ Rick to be mad at her, exactly. Beth makes a face herself. What does she want?

Validation, Probably.

“No,” Rick says slowly, getting out of the car. He closes the door and turns around, taking a step forward. “You’ve got it _all_ wrong.” 

“How?” 

“You just do.” 

_“How?”_ Beth has to tilt her head to look up at him. He was so tall. And yet, now he was smirking? Something sparkled in his eyes like he found the whole thing amusing and Beth could not for the life of her figure out why that was making butterflies in her stomach go off in a cacophony. 

“I can’t be mad at you,” he repeats. “Not today. Not for this. I didn’t say I can’t ever get mad at you _ever._ I can’t be mad at you _now_.”

Beth stands there at a loss for words. 

Rick looks her up and down. Beth’s own eyes widened. _Was he checking her out?_

“Yeah, the notebook thing sucks. I was working on that for a while.” 

“A whole month!” 

“Yeah,” he says, looking at her pointedly. “A whole month with you.” 

Beth isn’t following.

Rick rolls his eyes fondly, taking her wrist in his hand. 

“A whole month of lemonades and walks and talking about my dad and your mom with you here and at the park and at your house and listen, Beth. I can get angry, hell, we all know that. But having to just do that work all over again isn’t really that big of a deal. I just get to do it all over again with you.” 

Beth’s face gets ridiculously warm. “I—Really?” 

  
Rick’s eyes are soft. “And you’ll help me with Chuck to go through my thought process and try to replicate the science again, right?” 

She nods. “Yes, of course!” It’s only fair. She wouldn’t spill her drink all over his work then leave Rick alone to forget all about it and figure it out again by himself. Especially since he was so eager to get it done. Beth wonders how he could’ve just been so relaxed about it when—

“Hey, Beth.”

Rick’s touch leaves her wrist, his hand now on her cheek. Her thoughts halt altogether. 

“Can I kiss you?”

His question comes out of the blue. And not, at the same time. 

“I—” Beth gapes, anyway, brain empty. But her chest expands. Expands with the breath of air, and then sears, hot as a furnace. “You— _what?”_

Rick leans in closer. “Can I?” he asks softly, again.

“You _want_ to?” 

The answer is obvious when his mouth is against hers. And Rick kisses her like—

Like it means something, to him. Like he had _always_ wanted to. And Beth hadn’t noticed how much that sentiment is achingly mutual until the truth of it nearly pierces her. 

The kiss ends with the gentlest of breaths, Beth risks opening her eyes to get blasted by the yearning endearment adorned in Rick’s gaze. He breathes too, and she feels it so close, fanned against her face. Beth digs her fingers into Rick’s shirt, right over his heart, holding onto the moment. 

Holding onto this. 

“So…” she says, breaking the prolonged silence. “You’re too mad for me to be mad _at_ me, is that what you’re trying to say?” The joke is incredibly corny, worse than the best of Chuck’s favourites, but Rick is smiling. 

“Something like that.” 

Beth bites her lip, fully aware Rick has yet to remove his hand, his thumb behind her ear, stroking at the kinky fuzz of her hair. It’s an addicting kind of wonderful, as good as the quality time they’ve spent together in the lingering heat of the garage, sharing their afternoons. 

“I guess that changes things a little.”

“And for the record,” he says. “I don’t think you’re too fragile for anything.” 

“No?” 

Beth reaches up to kiss the serious conviction from his face. The pull between his eyebrows go lax immediately, and his voice lilts. “No.” 

“I’m sorry that I got so worked up. I didn’t want to start a fight, I just thought you were treating me differently.” 

“I do treat you differently, Beth. I’m trying to treat everyone differently, actually, but it’s working with you the easiest. For...reasons.” 

“So you’re not mad at me. But it’s okay if you _are_ seriously upset about the spill. You warned me it was full. I’m _really_ sorry.” She forces herself to pull away from their nook between Pat’s cars, inspecting Rick’s wrinkly book. 

Rick doesn’t move, leans against the red car, but folds his arms over his chest, watching. “Yeah, it was damn awful for about five full minutes.” 

“Only five?” Beth looks over her shoulder, contemplating running a few blocks down for a hairdryer from Barbara. “Why?”

“Because when I _do_ open that journal again, it’s going to be full of sticky lemonade pages—the memory of finally kissing you.” 


End file.
